About the Book | Shifra Malka

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In response to the childhood messages that she – like the personality-disordered aunt she supposedly resembled – did not matter, Shifra Malka writes to the core of her struggle to recover her beaten spirit and to build the large life that matters to her. Addressing the question of what mattering means, of what makes our lives large and when is it enough, Shifra explores these themes through the prism of how the question personally played out in her relationships with her family, her Orthodox Jewish religion, and the American culture focused on appearance, food, and money. Compassionate and healing to those wounded by similar messages, and energizing for all who want to make their lives large and remarkable, Dare to Matter is an exquisite call to satisfACTION.

In two words: Yourself, reimagined.

Available from Green Writers Press
340 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-1-950584-42-0
Release date: October 13, 2020

Read an Excerpt

In response to the childhood messages that she – like the personality-disordered aunt she supposedly resembled – did not matter, Shifra Malka writes to the core of her struggle to recover her beaten spirit and to build the large life that matters to her. Addressing the question of what mattering means, of what makes our lives large and when is it enough, Shifra explores these themes through the prism of how the question personally played out in her relationships with her family, her Orthodox Jewish religion, and the American culture focused on appearance, food, and money. Compassionate and healing to those wounded by similar messages, and energizing for all who want to make their lives large and remarkable, Dare to Matter is an exquisite call to satisfACTION.

In other words: Yourself, reimagined.

340 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-1-950584-42-0

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E-book and Paperback October 13, 2020

The number one reason to read Dare to Matter

Dare to Matter gives readers the will and courage to rebuild their collapsed inner space into the large life that makes getting out of bed every morning, and staying out of it, irresistible. This is a call to satisfACTION and a challenge to beat back the messages we get from family and society about what makes our life successful or not. The author’s personal struggle with childhood messages that she did not matter underlies the larger lessons that energize readers to opt into their lives.

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Preface

by Shifra Malka | Dare to Matter

Advance Praise for Dare to Matter

“Ms. Malka has an arresting writing voice which immediately pulls the reader in. More importantly, I applaud her way of presenting her own personal story, enfolding it into broader issues of mattering that will enable many, no matter how the details of their own life stories differ, to find themselves in her narrative.”

—Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Ph.D., Princeton University, philosopher and novelist, 2014 Recipient of National Humanities Medal Award

“A beautifully-written and profoundly powerful work about one of life’s most important topics, namely that we are all created to matter. It helps us all understand how our individual uniqueness is a gift, one we should enthusiastically and joyfully share with the world. Ms. Malka compels her readers to rethink their circumstance and to rediscover how we all possess personal power. I am excited the world will soon be able to experience her fabulous insights. This is, in a word, superb.”

—Brigadier General John E. Michel, author, Executive Director of Skyworks Global

“Shifra’s brilliant writing is compelling, and her insights are keen. She forges incisive links between weight, health, and the deeper issues of purpose and passion to produce a powerful, important chain of reasoning. If ever the case was made that bathroom scales do not measure human worth- it is made here! This is a tale that deserves to be widely told. Many who attend it will be forever affected for the better.”

—David L. Katz, MD, MPH; Founding Director, Yale University Prevention Research Center; President, The True Health Initiative

This book is for ...

The larger story of mattering cuts across social, academic, economic, and religious lines to the heart of how we do, or don’t, show up in our lives. It is for those reaching for ways to rework their painful feelings and gain insight in how to enlarge their lives, after having been held back/wounded by hurtful messages about the perceived small worth of their lives.

The book readily speaks to four sub-categories of growth-oriented readers:

Those who have struggled with their eating and are trying to improve it with clarity and compassion
Those who are raising children and want to explore the friction and fortune of parenting, the complexities of being a child and raising one
Those who are working to unfold creatively and spiritually
Those reaching midlife (and beyond) seeking to reimagine their life possibilities

Special features for academic use ...

The varied subject matter makes this material versatile to a broad range of academic arenas, including:

Prayer (and insights into other Orthodox practices) for the spiritual learner;
Thoughts on the inner world of the eating- disordered for professionals working with clients seeking clear, compassionate direction with food (see Dr. Katz’s blurb);
Insights into the complicated, anxious child (articulated from the child’s point of view) for educators and therapists working with children;
Parenting pieces will speak to the parents amongst us who ever had any ambivalence about our roles, i.e. To all of us;
Personal journey of the doula and laboring mother for birth educators and doulas;
Insights into the central role of human mattering to psychological and social development for psychology and social science departments (see Dr. Newberger’s blurb);
Lessons on creativity for Career Counselors who guide people in their professional pursuits